TIFF 2025 Exclusive: Director Clement Virgo talks Steal Away
Among the films that premiered at the 50th annual Toronto International Film Festival was Steal Away, directed by Clement Virgo and starring Angourie Rice, Mallori Johnson, Lauren Lee Smith, and Idrissa Sanogo Bamba.
Co-written with Tamara Faith Berger, the film was inspired by the non-fiction book, Steal Away Home by Karolyn Smardz Frost.
It tells the story of a pair of young women the film’s subtitle calls “two princesses.” The first is Fanny (Angourie Rice), a sheltered teenager whose knowledge of the world barely extends beyond the stately manor house belonging to her glamorous and magnanimous mother Florence (Lauren Lee Smith), which is located in a mysterious country that variously evokes occupied Europe, Algiers, and the Antebellum South.
Into her life comes Cécile (Mallori Johnson), a charismatic visitor who’s one of countless people seeking asylum from the conflicts that consume this alternate and highly stylized reality.
Executive producers are Paula Devonshire (Indian Horse), Caitlin Grabham (Brother), Laurie May (Infinity Pool), Noah Segal (Blackberry), with Edvard van ‘t Wout serving as associate producer.